“Library Link of the Day” Turns 10

As I do virtually every day, today I received an email in my box with the subject “Library Link of the Day”. Some years ago I signed up for this service and I haven’t regretted it since. As advertised, it is simply a link with a title or short description that I can either choose to visit or not. All links have something to do with libraries and librarianship. As the web site states:

The Library Link of the Day provides you a daily link for keeping up to date with the library profession. Destinations include the latest library news, good reads on the web, and other valuable resources that a library knowledge worker should know about. The link is presented without commentary. Links always lead to free content, but sometimes require registration (also free).

Although sometimes I have already been aware of the item that has been sent out, frequently I have not. And also frequently the link has taken me somewhere that I was very interested to visit. One of the things I like about the service is how unobtrusive it is. It takes only a second to scan and decide if you want to keep it for visiting later or not. So yes, I have found it to be a useful service all of the years I have been a subscriber, and I recommend it to you as well.

But there is more to this story. The creator, John Hubbard, has been doing this day in and day out for ten years. Try to think of something else you use today on the Internet that has lasted that long. Heck, when John launched his service the predecessor to Facebook hadn’t even launched yet. So we are talking some serious personal commitment. And you know what? Nothing is more important for service longevity than a deep personal commitment.

Roy Tennant is a Senior Program Officer for OCLC Research. He is the owner of the Web4Lib and XML4Lib electronic discussions, and the creator and editor of Current Cites, a current awareness newsletter published every month since 1990. His books include "Technology in Libraries: Essays in Honor of Anne Grodzins Lipow" (2008), "Managing the Digital Library" (2004), "XML in Libraries" (2002), "Practical HTML: A Self-Paced Tutorial" (1996), and "Crossing the Internet Threshold: An Instructional Handbook" (1993). Roy wrote a monthly column on digital libraries for Library Journal for a decade and has written numerous articles in other professional journals. In 2003, he received the American Library Association's LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for Excellence in Communication for Continuing Education. Follow him on Twitter @rtennant.